écusvseueTell them apart

Quick tell: écus is a noun, eue is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“écus” is a noun and “eue” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,086
“écus” frequency rank
#12,376
“eue” frequency rank
45462
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écus eue
Definition Pluriel de écu. Participe passé féminin singulier de avoir.

Where the eye mixes écus and eue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
écus
3 ch
eue

Visual trap between écus and eue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écus is \e.ky\ while eue is \y\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45462, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écus is recorded at frequency rank #33,086, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ky\. eue is at rank #12,376, tagged as averb, pronounced \y\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 45462, this pair ranks #202,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of écus vs eue

Shared letters: u. Private to "écus": csé. Private to "eue": e.

"écus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "eue" · 3 letters · shape VVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "écus" for "eue" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "écus" is a noun and "eue" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "écus" or "eue" show up more?
"eue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,376 in our French list, against #33,086 for "écus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "eue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #202,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écus" and "eue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écus vs étuis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #202,532 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list